Annealing process



J. B. TYTUS ANNEALING PROCESS Filed May 1, 1925 m w W A TTUA /VZ'KS.

Patented Dec. 4, 1928.

"UNITED STATES A sNr o-Fnca JOHN B. TYTUS, or MIDDLETOWN, OHIO, ASSIGNOR ro'rnn A EnrcAN ROLLINGMIIIL COMPANY, or MIDDLE'IOWN, 01110, a CORIQRATION or OHIO.

, mnanme rsocEss;

Application filed May 1,

My invention relates to methods of annealing sheet metal, and also to methods of preparing sheet metal for continuous processes of heat and acid treatment, including 6 washing, brushing, drying, cleaning and the like.

v In the handling of sheet metal in a continuous manner inheat and acid treatment, the cumbersome nature of the article handled 10 has presented great difiiculties to the art.

There have beenmetliods of annealing wire,

and strip metal wherein the long pieces delivered to the pickling tanks in rolls, are unwound and rewound so as to draw them through the tanks of acid, and occasionally it has been the practice to stitch .or tie together in some convenient manner'the ends of the strips or strandsiso as to avoid the necessity of leading each new roll of material through '20 the tanks before starting the pickling.

It isone of my objects to stitch together sheets of metal as distinguished from strips, strands or bands, and in this way to form a continuous piece that can be carried by rollers and pirich rolls, through various steps of treatment;

' It is a comparatively simple problem to handle wire or strip metal for annealing, heat treating and pickling, since the piece is long 40 mill rolls. and the nature of temperatures of' the pieces being reduced and several other factors, result in a different attenuation of a piece down the middle and along the edges. This diflerenceaccumulates as a piece passes 4 through the rolls and if the piece is long enough, will result in a buckling of the metal, and often in a broken mill. Progress in the rolling of strips has been made along the line of producing wider pieces of continuous character than was thought possible fifteen years ago, but there is still a very distinct limit in width in continuous strip production. Sheet is the term applied to the thinner .1925. Serial No. 635,985.

- gauges of metal produced in short wide front edge and the back edge from its passage I as a single entity through the rolls. production, however, length is limited mainly only by convenience in handling of the product on the final reels, since the process of reducing the original bar or ingot into strip is in asin le piece.

In speaking of s ieets in this application then, I use the term to distinguish metal pieceswhich are produced with process limitation as to length, primarily because'of the width and thinness of the pieces, from metal pieces known as strips, which from necessities'of process have limitations inwidth and gauge but-n0 limitation as .to

length; I I

, The artinvolving' the production ofsheet metal is replete with expensive mechanical devices fortransporting sheets through heat and. acid treatments, all of which'are devoted to the manipulation of thin, short length, wide pieces. 'It has never occurred to those skilled in the art, that'since' allsheets due to necessities of process have an unfinished edge at both ends, that they could be welded on stitched together into a continuous piece, using the unfinished ends for this purpose, without waste.

It has been advocated in strip and wire pickling and heat treating, that after one In strip.

strip or strand has all but passed through the process, that another strip or strand be hitched to it, to avoid necessity offeeding the beginning. of the next strip or strand into the machine. The use of waste ends in wire and strip work. for this purpose, has never been mentioned, however, and in factthe waste would be so little in proportion that its conservation would lie-absurd, as compared to sheets in which the waste ends, on an average careful rolling will be around 6% at least.

It is a demonstrated fact that certain heat treatments, such as are-employed for softening. and taking out strains in steel sheets can best be done by an individual heating, as dis tinguished from'heating in a pile, as is done in box annealing. However, to individually treat in this way anumber of sheets in a continuous furnace, requires'the use of a very closely arranged body of'driven rolls, so that the sheet which often shows some tendencyto bend down or curl, will not work down between the rolls, and thus block the action of the furnace. The r ll upkeep 18 as the lives of the rollers within a urnace are short, due to the temperature that mustbe carried.

There are other individual sheet annealing devices, using various ways of handling the pieces but these are all expensive and inconve'nient. V

One of the objects ofmy prooessis to continuously anneal a series of'sheets of metal, and to do this with a continuous piece formed of a number of sheets s'ecured endj to end. By

- this method I can draw sheets through a furtreatment in the rollingmill plant, and I- cause of width an H product are impractical to produce bythe nace without any mechanism within the furnace, and in lon furnaces where rollers are desirable, I can few rollers. H I

Another object of my invention is to produce a lon strip of'sheets without .loss of any metal ue to the necessity of cuttingaway the stitched or welded joints between theindividual pieces. In this connection also it is iny object to facilitate the production. of acontinuouslribbon of sheets, so thatithe side edges will aligned and the long body will not twist and buckle due to an un-uniform stitching. r a

I believe that I am the first to provide a continuous "strip made 'of sheet metal, for

mean by sheets, ieces of metal which be- (i gauge required inv the finalstrip process; Expressing this matter in another way, my object is to. proceed by the sheet rolling process so faras r uirements for successful reduction of the thic es of a wide piece are concerned and then to convert the material into a piece whichcan be handled in a continuous band, in that portion of the processing where reduction between rolls is notrequired. f I accomplishthe objects set forth above and the advantages to be detailed, by that certain process of handling, and treatment to be hereinafter more specifically pointed out and claimed.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of a continuous piece formed of sheets of metal.

quite costlyispense with all buta very.

cation 0 my process, but this vtr' is done so: as to leave a straight edge 3,3,at each end of the-piece, which ed e is still well outside of whatwill have to the final trim on the sheet. Thus it will be noted that in the view shown, the corners of the Sheet as at .4, are still cut-away or rounded ofi, after this trimtation at 4" on one end (Figure'2). I have indicated by the dotted line 5, the final trim line, in preparing the sheet for the customer.

mmg has taken place, also there is aninden- Wasted, has to leave more metal in the sheet I than might possibly be necessary to get out a full length piece after trimming. -This leavessufiicient metal for it to be possible to trim back every sheet to a straight edge as shown or other conformation, leaving a still further amount which requires to be removed .at a final trimming.

The sheets trimmed, as now described to a straight edge, are then formed by stitching or welding into a long continuous piece, in which the'sheets are secured end to end.' The operator has a clean edge to go by in lining up the pieces for securing the front end of one to the rear end of the other, and also knows just how farhe canlap one piece over he other in forming his connecting joint, as this is provided for in the fir'st trimming. That is to say, that the first trimming will be such as to leave, say an inchofmaterial on each end of each sheet, which will have to be removed to leave the length called for by order being rolled and this inch is to be used in overlap.

. After having the sheets so formed the long, or continuous piece can be handled in annealing, washing-drying, pickling and the like, allof said treatments being continuous', thus saving great time, and a. great .ex-. pense in equipment. When the long piece has been treated, the final work thereon will iio be to chop it across by a shears, in which for exampleadouble edged blade can be used, which will be so guided as to cutiout of the long strip those portions of each sheet which are used in makingghe joint. .With a definite trimming in the ends, the correct amount the final shears can'be arranged.

I do not wish to limit myself to .a lap joint or to a straight edge to which the individual pieces are first trimmed, as the edge'might be of various conformations depending upon the joint it was desired to make, the prime consideration being that the first trim should be arranged to give meeting or lapping edges which bear definite and predetermined relation to the final trim so that the operator t place, and a proper lo- I the lap, if any, between the sheet" for cutting out by the view of Figure 3. In this view-a table 10 is shown upon which are a pile of sheets 1. There is a table 11, and a shears 12, the operator picking up a sheet at a time and trimming them to the edge. and the dimensions deslred, as above described. From the shears, the pieces pass under a welder or stitcher 13, where the ends are secured together, the long piece being thenled to the furnace 14. In this furnace the rollers may be spaced apart fairly widely,'and some of them, if desired, not driven, whileothers are revolved. Pinch rolls 16 may be located at each end of the furnace to accomplish a positive speed of movement of the long piece made up by joining the sheets. By the word treating in the claims that follow, I refer to the annealing, pickling, washing and drying processes, which are given to sheet metal in order to give it the desired characteristics, which the rolling of the metal do not produce.

I have not shown any subsequent diagrams of washing, drying, and pickling devices, nor have I shown further the shears for cutting out the jointed portion of the sheets.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters v Patent, is

1. In a metal heat treating process those steps which consistin rolling a body of metal which, when rolled to the gauge required by a givenord'er, will have a length which is in excess of the ordered length by an amount suflicient to allow for terminal irregularities necessarily incident to the rolling process, then uniting the individual sheets end for end utilizing the said excess, so as to leave between each union a body of metal of the length required by the said given order, passingthe continuous band so provided througha heating chamber, and finally cutting away the zones ofunion, leaving individual pieces of the'said required length.

2. In a metal heat treating process those. steps which consist in rolling a body of metal which, when rolled to the gauge required by a given order, will have alength which is in excess of the ordered length by an amount sufiicient to allow for terminal irregularities necessarily incident to the rolling process, trimming the irregular excess ends of the individual sheets to lines which will serve as guides in uniting the sheets in .a. straight line, then uniting the individual sheets end for end utilizing the said excess, left after said trimming, so as to leave between each union a body of metal of the length required by the said given order, passing the continuous band so provided through a heating chamber, and finally cutting away the zones of union, leaving individual pieces of the said required length.

3. Ilia metal heat treating process those "sarily incident to-the rolling process, trim- "ming the irregular excess ends of the individual sheets to lines which will serve as guides in uniting the sheets in a straight line, saidlines being arranged so as to be an equal distance from the ends of a full width ina termediate zone of the length of the given order, then uniting the individual sheets end for end utilizing the said excess left after said-trimming, so as to leave between each union a bodyof metal of the length required'iby the saidgiven order, passing the continuous band so provided through a heating chamber, and-finally cutting away the zones of union, leaving individual "pieces of the saidrequired length.

JOHN B. TYTUS. h; 

